LoMap

Introduction

The software development company HappySw has been hired by the Council of Brussels to develop a software system called LoMap where the citizens can have personalized maps about places and local businesses in their city.

Places that can be mapped can vary from shops to bars, restaurants, sights, culture, etc. The personalized maps will be under full control of the users and the shared information will be stored in a personal pod according to the SOLID project.

Although the company has been hired by the council of one specific city, one of their goals is to develop a generic software solution that can be deployed and used in other cities.

Initial focus is on the user, to allow them to create their personal map of the places they live.

Next step could be to allow places (e.g. shops, restaurants etc) to create their own space, like a digital version of their physical place.

High level requirements

• Users can add locations in different categories like: shops, bars, restaurants, sights, monuments, etc.
• Users will be able to show the locations in a map window
• Users can add review scores, comments, pictures, etc. about the added places.
• It will be possible to manage from the application the information that is accessible with other users, like their friends or groups of friends.
• The information about a place stored by each user should not be centralized and should be stored in each user’s pod.
• If it is considered necessary, the system could store other information in a centralized way for performance reasons trying to respect the privacy of the users as much as possible.
• The system will allow users to see places and information about those places taken from their friends.
• The system will allow users to see the map with filters like by category, friends, etc.

Optional features

• Allow users to create routes like shopping routes, bar hopping, etc.
• Allow users to compare maps, e.g. compare specific categories like only restaurants.
• Allow places (restaurants, shops, bars, etc.) to create their own pods so people can connect to them.
• Create a newsfeed from connected places
• Add gamification features (e.g. collect places, discover new ones etc.)
• Create multiple maps between groups of users (family maps, tourist groups, etc. )
• Connect to the address book to check information about places or create place recommendations.
• Add different roles (citizen, tourist visitor, business owner)
• Opportunities for business owners: e.g. create a map with recommended places near their own store (like other stores, or bars to chill after shopping, etc…)
• Teams can decide to use more than one deployment technology stack.

Assessment criteria

The following criteria will be considered to assess the quality of the solution:

• Aesthetics and usability by non technical people.
• Security and respect for user's privacy.
• Responsiveness of the application.
• Originality of the solution.
• Quality of technical documentation taking into account architecture decision records.
• Code quality analyzed both manually and automatically.
• Tests code coverage and quality of test strategy.
• Project management aspects like proper use of issues, meeting notes, code reviews, architecture decision records, etc.
• Continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) strategy.
• Interoperability between the data stored by the different applications.

Solid challenge